News

The Head Office of the Investgiative Committee has finished criminal proceedings against chief of unit No 7 of the Khakassia Fire Service Viktor Zenkov and heads of Shira District Sergei Zaitsev and Shira Soviet of the settlement Yuri Kovalyov. They are charged with negligence entailing death of people and massive destructions due to wildfires in 2015 under Part 3 of Article 293 of the RF Criminal Code.

According to investigators, despite their duties Zaitsev and Kovalyov failed to ensure that fire safety, civil defense and emergency situations protection laws were followed in the settlement of Shira, while Zenkov failed to see that wildfires were put out which ended up in their mass spreading.

On 12 April 2015, 12 people died, 54 more were injured due to a fire that spread to the settlement of Shira. Considerable damage was done to more than 1 thousand physical and legal entities.

More than 150 forensic examinations were run during the investigation, more than 1,000 witnesses and victims were questioned.

By now the investigators have enough evidence, so the criminal case has been forwarded for the indictment to be signed and will then be referred to court.

Investigation in mass fires in other municipalities of Khakassia is ongoing. The investigators are looking into all the circumstances surrounding the wildfires that claimed lives of some people and injured others and did multibillion damage.

Official spokesperson for the RF Investigative Committee                                                                        S.L. Petrenko